Principal Roboticist (AI Robotics)

TL;DR

Principal Roboticist (AI Robotics): Building general-purpose robot foundation models and the hardware, software, and data systems required to deploy intelligent agents across mobile manipulators, dual-arm platforms, and humanoids with an accent on robot manipulation, embodied AI, and full-stack robotics experimentation. Focus on defining a new robotics research program, integrating real-world robot platforms, collecting high-quality data, and turning research policies into robust physical-world capabilities.

Location: Onsite in the Sunnyvale, California office, working closely with robotic lab infrastructure.

Company

hirify.global develops embodied AI software and foundation models for automated driving and general-purpose robotics.

What you will do

• Build, integrate, and maintain robot hardware platforms for research and experimentation.
• Develop robot software in C++ and Python, including control, planning, ROS/ROS2 systems, and deployment infrastructure.
• Create systems for robot policy deployment, data collection, evaluation, and the robotics data flywheel.
• Run real-world robot experiments and define data collection pilots that guide model development.
• Collaborate with researchers, ML engineers, roboticists, and hardware teams on policies, model evaluation, and data strategy.
• Debug robotics systems and build robust deployment, regression, and validation tests.

Requirements

• Experience with robot manipulation and hands-on work with robot hardware.
• Experience leading robotics efforts and delivering high-quality research or engineering work.
• Strong C++ and/or Python programming skills.
• Experience with robot control, planning, ROS, or ROS2.
• 5+ years of relevant industry experience.
• PhD preferred; a Master's degree with equivalent experience is also considered.

Nice to have

• Experience training and deploying learned robot policies.
• Publications in top-tier conferences such as ICRA, CoRL, or IROS.

Culture & Benefits

• Work on a well-resourced initiative combining foundation models and robotics.
• Access to real robots, real-world data, and large-scale experimentation.
• Influence the full stack from ML research and hardware to deployment and evaluation.
• Research environment with opportunities to innovate, publish, and shape a new robotics program.
• Inclusive and collaborative workplace focused on diverse perspectives and technical impact.